Community Standards of Criminal Liability and the Insanity Defense

Abstract

The insanity defense generates a great deal of controversy in our society. Previous research points to a community standard regarding insanity, almost certainly one that includes a cognitive component, but one that can include other components as well. This research has generally focused on the judgement rules people articulate when making their judgments. Psychological research, however, attests to the fact that people are frequently inaccurate in their honest efforts to identify and describe major factors influencing their own judgments and decisions. To address the implicit standards people, may, in practice, apply to the insanity defense, it is necessary to induce the rules that people use from the patterning of their judgments across a series of systemtically varied case scenarios. We use this approach in the present study.

Keywords: Insanity, community standards

JEL Classification: K14